


Circulating

by G_the_G



Series: Avengers University [10]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Beardy Professor Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Grad Student Darcy, Natasha Is a Good Bro, Russian Professor Bucky, Thor Is Not Stupid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 23:24:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10685040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/G_the_G/pseuds/G_the_G
Summary: What happens at the astrophysics symposium, stays at the astrophysics symposium.





	Circulating

“Has anyone seen Dr Foster?” No one shuffling past paid any attention to her, so Darcy finally grabbed one of the student waiters and repeated herself. Again. “You. Dr. Foster. About 5’3 and a hundred pounds of crazy brain. Possibly accompanied by over 200 pounds of human puppy. Where is she?” 

“Uh, last I saw she was alone over by the food.” They pointed in the general direction of where campus food services had set up a makeshift preparation area in the far corner. 

“Thanks.”

This was the third time she’d gotten any sort of help on where Jane was. The first tip said she was supposedly in the bathroom. But that had been a major bust, especially considering the couple who was making use of the far stall for things it was not intended for. And while go them, she’d used those bathrooms and didn’t think that was a very sanitary idea. With a shudder, Darcy had gone on to the next place she was directed. And while theoretically it made sense her genius of a friend would be on the roof, once again distracted by stars, this time was the exception. So, bracing herself for a possible third disappointment, Darcy went in search once more. But sure enough, there was Jane exactly where they’d said she was; stress-eating slightly soggy mini quiches. 

“Hey, doc. Come on.” She grabbed the elbow closest to her and pulled gently. But Jane, for as miniscule as she was, put up a pretty good fight.

“No. Just one more.”

With a little more strength, a couple moves Laura had taught her her back in self-defense club, and a lot of determination, Darcy was able to pull her away. But not before the slippery woman had snagged another two appetizers.

“Stop worrying. The symposium was great, campus catering has everything set for the night, I'm running point, and Thor seems intent on enjoying himself and your company very much.” Her comments had only a minimal calming effect, so she went for the big guns. “And I overheard those douche canoes from DC University who argued against your paper last year saying they should reevaluate your approach.” A pleased smile graced the doctor’s face and Darcy gave herself a mental high five, all the while continuing to put space between them and the food. “All you need to do is circulate, introduce Thor around, and relax.”

The arm she still held noticeably flinched.

“Exactly. I have to interact. Why else do you think I just ate at least five of those quiches?” Jane frowned, eyes taking on a frantic gleam as she held up the last two in her hands. Contraband which Darcy quickly confiscated.

“You are gonna need some tums later. But for now, let’s focus on the important things,” she paused, setting aside the quiches, making sure they were out of Jane’s reach before she began to dig in her purse. With a victorious grunt, she pulled out a tin of mints and a packet of gum. “Eat at least two of these, chew this, and then go find your brilliant arm candy. You're prom queen tonight and deserve to flaunt your date and make everyone jealous they didn’t ask to be your brain-date years ago.”

“Well,” Jane mused around the mints she was quickly chewing, “he's not my date and his prettyness does nothing to help with my awkwardness.”

“No but his charm and ability to get you to show off your genius-level awesomeness will. You’re not some basic bitch. You’re a badass Science! bitch. You got this.”

“You’re right.” Jane nodded.

Darcy prepared to congratulate herself on a rousing pep talk but then she continued talking. 

“I’m definitely not a  _ basic  _ bitch. I always thought of myself more as more of an acid despite the fact that the human body is more alkaline.”

“Ugh.” She physically turned Jane and tried to push her towards where she wanted her to go. “If you can make bad science jokes you're fine. Now go before I hurt myself pretending to like your puns.”

But the shit-stirrer of a scientist took only two steps before turning back with a grin.

“If I remember, you rather like puns. Or is it only when  _ you’re _ telling them. Or, you know, the art ones told by-”

“Go!”

With an impish grin and far less stress in her shoulders, Jane giggled and finally left to find Thor and conquer the night.

 

* * *

 

An hour later things were in full swing, there was enough food despite Jane's earlier rampage, no one seemed to mind the cheap alcohol being served, and the guest of honor seemed happy with it all. Delighted even.

“Nice party, Darcy. Remind me to get you to handle the next gathering the Foreign Language  department has.”

She turned to see Steve’s friend standing there with a gorgeous woman at his side. And she immediately had what felt like a major heart attack. Shit. Why were they there? Was Steve coming? By some stroke of luck had this man missed seeing her fondling his friend’s arm the other day? Was there any way she could hold a conversation and not come off as a complete weirdo?

“Well,” she paused to clear her throat. “I may be on campus year round, but I don’t know if you can handle my steep grad student pricing.” She let out a small sigh of relief as she held out her hand to shake his. So far so good. That wasn’t too bad. “Bucky right?”

“Guilty, and this is my wife, Natasha Romanova.”

The two women shook hands with a polite smile and Darcy found herself pointing as she pulled her hand back, suddenly placing why the name sounded so familiar. “You teach business management right?”

“Yes,” Natasha’s smile grew more calculating and she all but purred her next question. “Were you thinking of taking a course?”

Darcy figured the reaction was because, like Bucky’s first comment had implied, the professor was probably thinking of how handy it would be to have another grad student around for slave labor. “No, I'm really starting to focus on my research now, so no more jaunts into random classes. But my roommate Kate Bishop took one of your seminars this semester and really liked it.”

“I remember Kate,” she said with a delicate nod. “I was disappointed I couldn't persuade her to join the spring ballet instead of doing archery with Clint again.”

“I didn't realize you do ballet as well.”

“Natasha’s always been a woman of many talents.”

Darcy’s head whipped around at the comment that came from behind her, but she was too scared of doing something embarrassing in front of so many witnesses to hear the edge in his voice. Instead, her heart went right into another round of palpitations as Steve stepped up with a hesitant smile.

“Steve. Hi.” She forcefully clasped her hands together in front of her. There would be no unintentional sexual harassment that night. No sirree. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey, Darcy.” He tucked his hands into the pockets of his slacks with a shrug. “Just supporting my colleagues. Plus, Bucky here wanted to try and talk Thor into joining our ultimate team for the nationals.”

“Oh.” Darcy frowned and looked at the other professor. “I don't know if he'll still be around. But isn't that against the rules, international visitor and whatnot?”

Bucky chuckled and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. “They never  _ specifically  _ said we couldn't.” 

She let out a surprised laugh, just as Jane and Thor came up. Time for introductions. She could handle that. 

“Oh, hey, Jane, Thor, this is Natasha Romanova, and I’m pretty sure you’ve already met Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers.”

She made sure to not look at Jane’s face and simply gave herself another mental high five for not mentioning anything about when they would have met that might remind at least two of those present of her wandering hands. It would really be best if everyone just forgot about that. 

Thankfully, Natasha held her hand out, ready to welcome their visitor. “I guess I should be polite before these two lugs start trying to draft you for ridiculousness.” 

Thor let out a hearty laugh, clearly not opposed to the idea. 

“How has your visit been so far?”

“Wonderful!” His voice filled the circle they stood in and probably filtered at least twenty feet across the room. “I quite like it here. I like it a great deal.” He said that last bit while smiling down at Jane and Darcy had to bite her lip to keep from squealing on behalf of her friend. But then he turned to look at her with a smirk. “Though I must say I find some of the company here rather  _ shocking _ .”

This comment elicited confusion on three faces, a snicker from Jane, and a groan from Darcy.

“It's a joke,” she clarified. “And a bad one at that. I shocked him when we first met.”

Steve snorted and bumped her with his elbow. “With a taser?”

“I never should have told you about that,” she grumbled closing her eyes for a second. “No. Static electricity, and he's been  _ punning  _ it up ever since.”

“Come on Darce,” Jane piped in. “Just as I mentioned earlier, you know you love puns.” The glare she received from said supposed-pun-lover did nothing to stop her, though. “I know art is currently your favorite theme, but I don't have any of those. I do have an architecture one though.”

“Let's hear it,” Steve said with a grin. No doubt ready to add another pun to his already large collection.

“Please don't encourage her,” Darcy pleaded.

“Too late,” Jane chirped, beaming at the encouragement. “What type of column has a charge?

While everyone was silent waiting the punch line, Thor’s dopey grin was by far the most enthusiastic expression in the group.

“Ionic.”

Bucky shook his head. “Of course the scientist knows that one.”

Jane took a small bow. “Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all semester.” When she straightened, though, something caught her eye from across the room. “Oh, Dr. Selvig is here. You should really meet him.” She grabbed Thor’s arm to lead him across the room, barely sparing a quick goodbye and distracted wave to the rest of the group. 

But while Darcy watched the pair head off, noting how Thor pulled Jane’s hand around his arm to set his hand on top of where hers rested on his elbow as though he was escorting her to a grand ball, she missed a silent conversation taking place behind her. When she turned back, she only caught a raise of an eyebrow and a subtle tilt of a head between Natasha and Bucky.

“Well,” the redhead began, turning to the other two. “I don’t know about you, but I’m going to scope out the food the campus team has been able to muster up. You guys want anything?” Before either Steve or Darcy were able to respond, she waved a hand dismissively. “I’ll just get you what looks good.” She took a step away and grabbed Bucky’s hand. “Help me carry stuff?”

And like that, they were gone, leaving Darcy still grasping her hands to keep them to herself as she stood there alone with Steve.

Despite the fact that she wasn’t able to stop watching her buffer walking farther and farther away, she heard him say something under his breath, but she couldn’t quite catch it.

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” he muttered. After a second he seemed to shake himself and turned to her with a half smile. “So did you get your paper done?”

“My paper?” she asked, focusing back on him. It was probably safer she was at least aware of what she was saying to embarrass herself.

“You said you had to work on one the other day at the field.”

Shit. He actually listened to her babbled excuse. Did that mean he remembered the bicep fondling? Yes, it had been amazing but she wasn’t sure it was worth his possible recollection of her lapse in brain function. 

“Oh. Yes. That paper. Uh. Yeah. I did. Which is good. Because I have yet another one to bang out.” Her fingers clenched around themselves even tighter and she swore she could hear her knuckles creak.  _ Bang out? _ Why the hell did she say that? Abort. Abort. “So... You, uh, excited for the semester to be over?” Her voice went rather high at the end of her question, so she let out a small cough, hoping it would seem as if any of her weirdness was still somehow related to her past cold. And not a direct result of the social-anxiety induced aneurysm she was was pretty sure she was about to have.

“No more than any other semester.” He shrugged, and reached up to rub his jaw before smoothing his beard back in place. She tried not to follow the movement too much, focusing on his eyes when his hand went back to his pocket. “But I am looking forward to having more time to finish an article I’ve been working on.”

“The good world of publish or perish, huh?”

He chuckled. “To a degree but it's a field of research that's always fascinated me.”

Darcy’s main anxiety gave way to genuine curiosity. The topics that other people chose to study were always something that would interest her. She was still nervous, but the chance to learn something new superceded any more major worry. For the moment. “Yeah? What's that?”

“World War 2 art. Especially the propaganda stuff.”

“Really?”

“It's an intriguing area where you see so many classical features with some modern and inventive techniques blended in.” He pulled his hands out to start gesturing as he spoke, clearly warming to the topic. “You also see so much of the political and social landscape that influenced it. Even the color choices get kind of interesting, especially with how they’re portraying race and xenophobia.” He paused, cutting himself off. “Sorry, I forget not everyone is as interested in this.”

“No, no,” her own hands unclenched to wave off his worry. “My grandpa had a collection of a lot of war music and posters and they always fascinated me as a kid.”

“No kidding?”

“Yep.” She nodded enthusiastically. “My favorite was the sheet music he had. There was this one song, ‘Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.’ And while it was written by the guy who did Guys and Dolls, somehow this one wasn’t such a showstopper.”

He laughed and she couldn’t help smiling back, once again appreciating the eye crinkles and, well, everything. Suddenly remembering, she snapped her fingers. “Actually, I think I have a picture of it on my phone.” She reached into the hidden pocket in her skirt and pulled out her phone, scrolling through till she found what she was looking for. “Yep. Here it is!”

Realizing it would be dangerous to try and lean closer, she held her phone for him to take. Which had seemed like a good idea at first, until she had to remind herself to hold still and avoid reacting to his fingers brushing against hers as he grabbed her phone for a closer look.

“That is a classic!”He smiled and began zooming in on the picture. “And this is one I  _ haven't  _ seen before. Do you mind sending it to me? I might want to reference it.” 

“Oh. Sure!. Should I email it?”

“Could you text it? I have been using my phone to document most things and since I have yet to transfer them to the computer I could easily save this with the rest of my files.”

Text him. Have his number in her phone. Well that wasn’t asking for trouble. “Uh yeah. Sure.”

She got her phone back and tried to quickly enter his number and get it over with. After only messing it up twice because of her shaking fingers, she sent the photo. Success. She’d handled herself admirably. She could totally continue to have a normal conversation. Right as she tucked her phone away and smiled back at him, trying to keep her slightly manic expression tempered, a student waiter came up. Her nametag said she was Beth from Ithaca, and her expression made Darcy nervous on a whole new level.

“Uh, excuse me,” she said quietly. “I was told I should tell you that we’re having some problems in the back. There’s been a mix-up with the desserts and half have already been served. Since you told us to wait until 8:00 to serve them, we’re not sure what you want us to do with everything else.”

“Okay. Yeah.” She turned to Steve apologetically. “Sorry, duty calls.”

“No worries,” he gestured for her to take her leave. “I was going to head out soon anyway.”

“Oh, of course. Well, have a good night then.” She lifted one hand, not sure if she was reaching out to shake his hand, high five him, or once again accidentally molest him. Bad hand. Thankfully she was able to pull it back quickly and tuck it into the folds of her skirt. “Say bye to Bucky and Natasha for me.”

Not waiting for a response, she gave a half salute with her other hand and followed in Beth’s wake. But before she walked behind the screens that separated the prep area from the rest of the room, she turned back. Steve had joined his friends again, all three now holding food and drinks. Darcy made eye contact with Natasha. It took a second to realize that the woman was smiling directly at her. Not wanting to appear guilty or getting caught, Darcy gave a quick, frantic wave and ran away to focus on a problem she could solve. 

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if there's more typos than usual. My brain is shutting down but I feel the need to get this up and posted.


End file.
